


The Presence in the Force

by noblesparrow



Series: Daughter of the Dark [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Hurt Anakin Skywalker, Hurt/Comfort, Sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-17 08:29:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29590032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblesparrow/pseuds/noblesparrow
Summary: Anakin is pulled out of Mustafar with only one leg gone, and his world is forever changed. Isolated by power and serving a new master, he looks for some sort of comfort in the Force. When Anakin reaches into the force, he senses a presence that he does not understand. It feels similar to his departed wife, but he knows it is not her. It is someone different. Someone connected to her. He becomes determined to find who it is that is so closely connected to Padmé.
Relationships: Sheev Palpatine & Anakin Skywalker
Series: Daughter of the Dark [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2173926
Kudos: 6





	1. The End

**Author's Note:**

> This Entire Series was inspired by a Tik Tok I saw. I don't have the link to it at the time of this posting, but when I find it again, I'll post the link with the next chapter!

Why had he jumped? How stupid could he be? Obi-Wan had sliced one leg clean off. It is by a mere miracle that one leg was all he lost. Anakin slid down the rocks towards the lava river. He clawed at the rocks and digs in his foot into the ground. He looks up and sees Obi-Wan marching towards him with his lightsaber drawn.

Anakin panics and looks for his saber. He sees it up the hill behind Obi-Wan, but Obi-Wan is too close. Anakin grits his teeth and thrusts one hand forward, pushing Obi-Wan back and knocking him off his feet. Anakin struggles to drag himself up the hill towards his saber. Obi-Wan stumbles to his feet as Anakin draws his saber into his hand. Anakin rolls onto his back as Obi-Wan rushes him.

Anakin yells and thrusts his hand at Obi-Wan. Pain from his severed limb clouds him. He grits his teeth and does not focus on how he grabs Obi-Wan, only that he does. He squeezes his hand and he hears Obi-Wan yell. His vision clears enough to see Obi-Wan grabbing at his chest. He squeezes until he can’t squeeze anymore. He throws Obi-Wan over the hill and out of his sight.

He tries to drag himself away, but he is too weak. He knows that Obi-Wan will surely come back and kill him, but that does not matter. Anakin falls onto his stomach and passes out on the rocky hill.

* * *

Anakin wakes to someone rolling him onto his back. Sounds in his ears are muffled. He thinks he hears a voice talking to him. He opens his eyes as hands grab him and move him onto a stretcher of some kind.

“You have done well, my apprentice,” the voice says, “leave the rest to me.”

Anakin’s eyes flutter open and see the hooded figure of his new dark lord master: Darth Sidious. Anakin gasps and coughs. He tries to speak, but no words can form. His head rolls to the side and he falls into sleep.

Upon waking once more, he lays in a bed of some sort of medical facility. He looks down at his body. He curls his fingers and his toes, but one foot… He lifts his head and looks down at himself on the bed. A blanket covers him. He sees two legs. He carefully takes the blanket and moves it aside. He looks at his leg and feels his heart drop. Memories of the fight come back to him.

His leg really was gone. Anakin looks at a robotic prosthetic instead starting just above what used to be his knee made of flesh and blood. He looks at his prosthetic arm and curls its fingers. First an arm. Years later: a leg. Is he destined to lose all four limbs over time? He lays back down and stares at the ceiling. He feels bandages on his shoulder where he was burned by… something. He does not remember what. Does it really matter? That entire planet was on fire.

He thinks about Obi-Wan. Anger fills him. Obi-Wan betrayed him. Obi-Wan failed him. He remembers tossing Obi-Wan after hearing him scream. Anakin did not see or hear Obi-Wan after that. Anakin takes a frustrated breath. Who knows what happened to him? Had Sidious killed him? It was Sidious who found Anakin after it all. How would Sidious have found him before Obi-Wan?

Or did Anakin crush him to death with his force grip?

A window looks out to the city. That’s right… he remembers he was brought back Corasaunt. In his fading in and out of sleep, he heard that much. The sky is an ugly burnt orange. He can hear nothing, but memories come back to him. He marched on the Jedi Temple. He helped execute Order 66. He helped tear the Republic down to rubble. 

Anakin feels worry and fear creeping up into his throat. He pushes it away and sits up with a frustrated grunt. He lets out a small yell of pain from his shoulder and from the joint where his new leg meets his body. He grits his teeth and puts a shaking hand just above the new leg. He takes deep breaths. A new leg. A new world. Then a face comes to his mind.

“Padmé…” he whispers.

The door to his room opens and guards wearing all-red uniforms and cloaks enter the room. Anakin slowly moves his legs off the bed and sits with his legs hanging off the side as Darth Sidious enters the room wearing his black cloak and a black hood over his head. Anakin moves to stand, but Sidious raises his hand to stop him.

“There’s no need to stand, my apprentice,” he says, his voice low like usual, “you need your rest. How do you feel?”

Anakin does not know what to say. He looks up at his master.

“Where is Padmé?” he asks, looking more innocent and helpless than he meant to.

His master is quiet for a moment. He holds his hand delicately in front of him.

“It appears that in your anger, you killed her.”

Anakin feels his heart drop. He begins to breathe hard, staring hard at Sidious. Anakin slowly shakes his head.

“No.” He takes heavy breaths. “No…”

“I’m afraid it is true, my young apprentice.”

Anakin grips the side of the bed as hard as he can. He looks down but stares at nothing in particular. His anger swells to mask his guilt. He grits his teeth and shakes his head.

“No!”

Without thinking, he pushes himself up to stand, but his instability on his leg sends a strange combination of pain and numbness up to his hip and he collapses to the ground with a thud. He yells and grabs his leg. Nurses run into the room at the sound, but they stop when Sidious kneels next to Anakin. 

“Get back in bed, apprentice. You must heal. I need you well. There is still much to be done for the new Empire.”

Anakin struggles to roll onto his hands and knees, limiting the amount of weight placed on his new leg. He looks up at Sidious. He sighs, defeated, and looks down at the floor.

“Yes, master.”

Sidious stands and motions for the nurses to come forward. They help Anakin stand and put him back in bed. Anakin lays on his back only staring at the ceiling.

“Rest, Apprentice,” Sidious says, “you will need your strength.”

Then he leaves with his red-clothed guards. The nurses stay an extra minute to make sure Anakin is properly settled back down before they leave as well. The door closes and he is alone. He does not move. The longer he lays there, the more his lip quivers. He takes deep breaths as tears pool in his eyes. When the first tear rolls down his head towards his ear, he closes his eyes and allows himself to cry silently and alone.


	2. Familiarity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having returned from making his new Sith lightsaber, Anakin recovers from his battle. He remains isolated as he contemplates his choices. In his grieving and sorrow, he senses a presence. It is familiar but at the same time… unknown.

Anakin steers the ship back down to the landing platform on Corasaunt. He wears a constant scowl on his face. He lands the ship carefully on the platform. He stands and pauses at the top. He closes his eyes and clenches his jaw. He holds the arm of the pilot’s chair with one hand and the other on the panel above him to balance. It has been weeks since he was released from the hospital and his leg still pains him.

His leg pains him greatly. It had since his battle with the Jedi. He hates himself for how he fought. Sloppy. Unbalanced. Inexperienced. He’s lucky he survived at all. Kirak Infil'a was not an easy Jedi to find nor destroy. Anakin looked down at his new lightsaber hooked to his belt. He had done what his master had ordered. He had killed a Jedi and turned the crystal to the dark side.

He takes a heavy, limping step around the pilot’s chair and grunts. He sighs a frustrated sigh and looks at the cane laying on the bench behind the cockpit. He glares at it. He has Obi-Wan to thank for it. Anakin takes heavy and uneven steps to the cane and uses it to walk off the ship.

He limps past the platform crewman and walks inside the Senate building. He makes his way up to Palpatine’s office and is allowed inside by the guards. Anakin enters and waits patiently just inside the doors. He uses the cane as little as he can for balance, but he is tired from his battle and journey. It is hard not to rely on it. Palpatine turns his chair around slowly to face Anakin.

“Welcome back, apprentice.”

“Thank you, master,” Anakin says. He takes his new saber off his belt and holds it out towards his master. “I’ve done what you asked.”

“Your Sith lightsaber. Even if your Jedi saber hadn't been stolen, it wouldn't have been adequate for a Lord of the Sith,” Palpatine says. He holds out his hand and slowly draws the lightsaber out of Anakin’s hand and across the room to him. He observes the hilt and slowly rolls it around in his hands. “Well done, Lord Vader.”

He sends the lightsaber back to Anakin, who puts it back on his belt. Palpatine looks Anakin over.

“You look weary, Apprentice.”

Anakin pauses before speaking.

“The fight and the journey were both long, master. And… I’m afraid I’m still getting accustomed to my new leg. It still pains me greatly.”

“Go and rest then,” Palpatine says, “we will continue our work tomorrow.”

“Thank you, master,” Anakin says, giving his master a short bow.

Anakin turns and leaves Palpatine’s office.

He summons a transport and almost tells them to take him to his home, but he decides otherwise. He tells them to take him someplace different.

The transport flies through the city and flies to the upper levels of the nicer buildings on Corasaunt. They fly to a landing platform outside of an abandoned apartment. The furniture is all gone and the warmth of life is long gone. Anakin steps out and looks into Padme’s old apartment.

“Come back for me in an hour,” he orders the pilots.

They do as they are told and leave Anakin standing on the landing platform, the wind blowing his black cloak gently.

Anakin looks at the apartment with disdain. It should not be this way. Dark and cold. Padme was neither of those things. Her home should not be either. He steps into the apartment, the only sound to be heard is the quiet tapping of his cane. He stands in the middle of what used to be the sitting room. He shakily lowers himself down to his knees and sits down, his legs folded under him. He lays his cane down on the floor and puts his hands in his lap.

He needs to give this up. Coming here every free moment. She’s gone! There’s no use in meditating here. But, if that is true, why does he feel a familiar presence here? Why is there a connection from here to somewhere in the galaxy to someone that feels like his beloved wife? He remembers his anger. The way he… choked her. It wasn’t enough to kill her. He knows it wasn’t. There is a lie orbiting him. Someone told him a lie. Who did? And what was it?

He closes his eyes and focuses on the force. His meditation skills were never strong. He wishes now that he had worked on it more when he was younger. He has been coming here as soon as he was free from the hospital. He felt the presence then. He thought he had made it up in his grief, but now he knows he has not.

The presence is young. Younger than Padme was. It is distant. Not on Corasaunt. Somewhere far from here. But how is it connected to Padme? Why does it feel so familiar? He focuses to try and sense where it is coming from. He has lost count of how many times he has tried to do this, but he can ask for no help. He knows Palpatine would write this off as a fool’s errand and keep a closer eye on him to keep him from it.

Despite the struggle, he has felt himself getting closer to the source. One or two more meditations should do it. He sits for a long while. He lets himself fall deeper and deeper into meditation. Without realizing it, he falls deeper than he has in months.

He connects deeper with this presence. He reaches out to it, but it does not reach back. He calls to it, but there is no response. There is no attempt to reach back. He searches around it. Is there anything around that can lead him to it? He digs deeper and deeper. He calls to the force, begging for help.

“Please,” he whispers, “help me. Help me find something. I need something…”

Then he suddenly hears a voice through the Force:

_Alderaan…_

Anakin gasps.

“Master Qui Gon?” he whispers.

“Lord Vader.”

Anakin is jolted out of his meditation and sits up straight.

“What?” he snaps, breathing heavily.

“You weren’t responding, my lord,” the pilot answers nervously, “are you alright?”

_Alderaan…_ Anakin thinks.

Anakin takes a moment to sit and breathe. Then he slowly and painfully stands to his feet. He walks back to the transport and gets in.

“Take me home,” is all he says.

He sits in silence as they fly through the city back to his apartment. He hated living on Corasaunt, but in this moment, he is thrilled that he was here.

_Alderaan._


End file.
